Public offerings

I am always excited to bring Writing Ourselves Whole talks or writing group experiences to colleges/universities, organizations or groups.

Here are several of the workshops I have offered at schools and for communities around the country. Depending on the needs of your group, we could craft a talk, writing experience, or a combination from any of these offerings. Please contact me for booking or other information.

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Write Whole: Survivors WriteChanging our language can change how we understand and story our lives.
In this experiential writing group for survivors of trauma, we write in response to exercises chosen to elicit deep-heart writing, that concern such subjects as body image, family/community, sexuality, dreams, love, faith, and more. We create new art and new beauty out of the difficult and complicated realities of our lives. Writers are encouraged to trust the flow of their own writing, and receive immediate feedback about the power of their words. Although the setting is a supportive one, the workshop is different from a support group or therapy, as the focus of the workshop itself is on each person’s writing. At the end of this AWA-method writing group, writers have a rich body of new creative writing, feedback from peers about what’s already strong in this work, and connection with a new and open-hearted writing community.

Liberatory Uses of Erotic WritingCan erotic writing liberate more than our libidos?
Does greater comfort with sexual expression lead to greater agency in our communities? Many of us assume that the erotic is solely the province of the individual, and not a site of social change or communal liberation – but what happens when we all have wider access to and more comfort with erotic language and sexual expression? The full breadth of our erotic power can challenge what our society (both damning and provocative when it comes to personal expression and human relationships) teaches us about our sexuality. When we bring our longing into the light and find common ground with others, when we risk exposing that which we’ve been trained to be ashamed of, many of us step into a deeply empowered and more embodied self. In this AWA-method workshop, we try our hand some explicit writing, and discover how a creative engagement with sexual identity, fantasy, desire, and expression can empower our intimate relationships, our communities, and our work in the world. (Can be made survivor-specific or open to all, as desired.)

Embodied Words: Unveil your body’s storiesWhat are the stories that your body has to tell?
Writing is itself an embodied and embodying process; still, many of us, for varying reasons, believe that we must write from our “rational minds” in order to write well. When we are disconnected from our sensory experiences, our bodies are without a storyteller, and the result can be writing that feels emotionally disconnected. In this AWA-method workshop, we engage the power and possibilities of being grounded in the body when we write, and explore ways to gently invite the specific sensory details or memories that bring forth powerful body story and character development. We discuss examples from recent memoir, fiction, and poetry, and write together, from the stories our bodies (or our characters’ bodies!) are ready to share.

3 responses to “Public offerings”

I am interested in joining one of the online workshops, if there is still room. I could use some guidance about Write Whole vs Embodied Words….is Write Whole specifically for survivors of sexual trauma? If yes, Embodied Words would be more the right space for me. If, on the other hand, the trauma of chronic illness, medical trauma, and the like, are appropriate material for Write Whole, then that may make the most sense. Can you please offer some additional info or examples of writing to give a little more direction? Thanks!

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Our mission and vision

The mission: We offer safe, confidential writing groups to a broad cross-section of the community, and in particular to those who are living in the aftermath of intimate violences. We engage a non-clinical, transformative and communal approach for those living with and in the aftermath of trauma, and recognize that resurrecting our own language and stories is a necessary part of re-ordering ourselves after trauma.

The vision: Writing Ourselves Whole seeks to change the world through writing. We exist in the service of transforming struggle into art, turning isolation toward community, and creating spaces in which individuals may come to recognize the artist/writer within.

Our Fiscal Sponsor

Writing Ourselves Whole is a fiscally-sponsored project of the Intersection Incubator